Kicking off the PPV main card at UFC 311 this past Saturday was a very intriguing matchup in the middleweight division between

Kevin Holland made it clear heading into UFC 311 that he wasn't overly impressed with Reinier de Ridder. Perhaps now his opinion has changed. De Ridder, the former two-division ONE Championship title holder,

Reiner de Ridder debuted with the UFC in November, but UFC 311 was his real welcome party. De Ridder, a former two-division champion under the ONE Championship banner, delivered a flawless performance inside Los Angeles' Intuit Dome on Saturday that will do him wonders moving forward.

Reinier de Ridder is coming off a submission win over Gerald Meerschaert in November, and we expect the Dutch grappler to shine against Kevin Holland in Inglewood.

Kevin Holland, who faces Reinier de Ridder at #UFC311, is 8-2-1 against UFC-level southpaws (W: Neal, Phillips, *GM3, Buckley, Ontiveros, Means, Chiesa, Oleksiejczuk; L: Vettori, Brunson; NC: Dukakis)

UFC kicks off the new year with a pay-per-view that will be tough to beat. UFC 311 is topped by two terrific title fights: UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan and bantamweight champ Merab Dvalishvili vs.

Reinier de Ridder lived up to his pre-fight promises, submitting Kevin Holland in the first round to kick off the UFC 311 PPV main card at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The former two-division ONE Championship titleholder needed just 3:42 to secure a rear-naked choke victory,

Check out the best photos from Reinier de Ridder's first-round submission win over Kevin Holland at UFC 311 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, Calif. (Fight and venue photos by Gary A. Vasquez, USA Today Sports) reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-media-day-1 kevin-holland-ufc-311-media-day reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-pre-fight-press-conference kevin-holland-ufc-311-pre-fight-press-conference reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-pre-fight-press-conference-1 kevin-holland-vs-reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-pre-fight-press-conference-faceoff reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-official-weigh-ins-1 reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-official-weigh-ins kevin-holland-ufc-311-official-weigh-ins reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-ceremonial-weigh-ins kevin-holland-ufc-311-ceremonial-weigh-ins kevin-holland-vs-reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-ceremonial-weigh-ins-faceoff MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder MMA: UFC 311 Holland vs de Ridder reinier-de-ridder-ufc-311-post-fight-interview This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Reinier de Ridder def.

Jared Cannonier is not the flashiest fighter in the UFC middleweight rankings, but he is as well-rounded as any competitor in the division. “The Killa Gorilla” had his shot to

Reinier de Ridder faced some adversity in his UFC debut, but none in his sequel fight against Kevin Holland. The former two-weight ONE Champion opened up the UFC 311 main card on Saturday night, taking down Holland with ease in the first round.

Ahead of UFC 311, the promotion’s first pay-per-view event of the year and on which he’s competing, Holland (26-12 MMA, 13-9 UFC) expects to have a very active year. One of the promotion’s most frequent fighters, Holland wants to break the personal record he set in 2020 of five fights. He won all of those.